2-The food & drinks were good to excellent. The Americans aboard appreciated having turkey with stuffing, cranberry relish, etc., on the menu on Thanksgiving.

3-The weather was colder than expected, so the pools & hot tubs were used less than we expected-but they were open and towel service provided.

4-The "new" ports of call were all very interesting, as was watching the Captain take this large ship into some small docks! The tours were took in Melbourne ^ Hobart were excellent.

5-The cruise prior to us had GI illness & flu on board (as others have reported), which slowed getting to the cabins by 4-6 hours as the crew did a thorough disinfection of the ship. It would have been nice to have More
been notified of that so we could have arrived at the pier later in the day-instead of at noon for a 10 P.M. departure.

6-The GI illness broke out again about 2 weeks into the cruise, requiring re-institution on isolation of the sick, increased sanitary precautions, etc. This created some obvious stress on both the food service and cabin crews.

7-Finally, and a somewhat minor issue, there is ADVERTISED 24-hour room service, but there is NONE between about 9:30 AM and 1200 noon. They won't even take orders for room service lunch until 11:30!

Overall-we enjoyed the cruise, especially as we were lucky enough to NOT get the GIs or the flu! :) Less